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While almost 60 percent of consumers in emerging market countries would buy a local brand over an international brand if both products were of equal price, consumers in these ‘Hotspots’ countries have the same brand preferences for cars (Toyota), fast food (McDonalds) and hotels (Hilton) as developed market consumers, reveals global market research company Synovate.

Nairobi-based Business Daily Africa has signed an exclusive agreement with 365 Digital in Cape Town to employ the Adtech Helios IQ ad serving technology to deliver their online ad campaigns. 365’s traffic team will handle the online campaign management and implementation.

Airlink, true to its theme of the ‘Freedom of the African Skies’, continues to extend its reach with new African destinations and is proud to announce a new direct route from Johannesburg to Pemba, Mozambique.

After leading the South African business-to-business and online media in publishing daily news to the media, marketing and advertising community in South Africa, Bizcommunity.com is launching into Africa to provide our readers on the continent and advertisers with comprehensive and durable content country by country - adding to the 800 000 newsletters it already distributes monthly with SA-specific content in this industry.

Reuters has expanded its television coverage of Africa with the recent launch of a dedicated daily video feed, Reuters Africa Daily. The new service provides both African and global broadcasters with a variety of video news from the region.

Julian Ribeiro is taking over the reins from outgoing MD of Ogilvy Johannesburg, Nandi Scorer, who recently announced her resignation to settle in Cape Town. Ribeiro's role is to build on the recent success of the agency, which in 2005 boasted an 82% success rate in the pitch process, and an 88% improvement in creative output over the previous year.

Pioneers in the fields of public relations and communication academia gathered at an academic forum running alongside the main Federation of African PR Associations (FAPRA) conference last week to discuss the future public relations curriculum to be offered on tertiary level.

Cinevation walked off with its third Roger Garlick Award at the Financial Mail AdFocus Awards ceremony last night, 8 May 2006. The enchanted Harry Potter experiential 'Book Store', conjured up by Marisa Torrani and Karen Bailey for Exclusive Books last year, grabbed the judges' attention and, besides being awarded an AMASA Gold Award, this entry was voted the best overall, earning Cinevation the 2006 Roger Garlick trophy.

Following on the World Economic Forum meeting last week in Davos, the Partnering Against corruption Principles for Countering Bribery guideline has been published on the World Economic Forum website. For communication consultants this offers an enormous opportunity, since there will shortly be a widespread awareness campaign to encourage enterprises across the world to commit to these principles and design and implement internal processes and monitoring to apply these rules to their business.

Nashua has signed a three year deal to continue its naming rights sponsorship of the South African Sports Illustrated Swimwear Issue for an undisclosed amount. The annual print edition, which has made household names of models like Tanya Fourie, Christina Storm, Kerry McGregor, Minki van der Westhuizen, Megan McKenzie, Tanit Phoenix, Teresa de Klerk and Gina Athans will be supplemented with multi-media exposure including national radio and TV coverage.

Reporters Without Borders has published its second world press freedom ranking. Like last year, the most catastrophic situation is to be found in Asia, with eight countries in the bottom ten: North Korea, Burma, Laos, China, Iran, Vietnam, Turkmenistan and Bhutan. South Africa ranked 21st.